


All that awaits you is a somber morrow

by cruellae (tinkabelladk)



Series: You and I could end the world in fire or blood [7]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M, bad breakups, except Zack, mako reactors, no one acts rationally even once, poor Zack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 01:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18201746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinkabelladk/pseuds/cruellae
Summary: Standing in the cold, harshly lit reactor, the great quantities of refined mako buzzing just under his skin, Zack was starting to get a really bad feeling about the whole situation.~In which no one listens to the voice of reason (aka Zack), there is much melodrama involving feathers, and the spark is lit that kindles the firestorm.





	All that awaits you is a somber morrow

**Author's Note:**

> So I've taken a lot of liberties with this scene; it's not at all the same as in Crisis Core. I think it makes more sense if Genesis asks for help first, then tells Sephiroth about Jenova after when Sephiroth refuses to help him. Also, Genesis is melodramatic to a fault, but I still think he'd have a little more subtlety and finesse than the in-game dialogue gives him.

“Yeah it looks like a chocobo,” Zack said, laughing, as he playfully ruffled the odd spiky hair belonging to one of the young footsoldiers. “Have you looked in a mirror?”

The cadet mumbled something and ducked out of the way, but his expression was pleased nevertheless. But they both stopped laughing when they looked up and saw Sephiroth in the hallway.

“Sir,” the cadet said, snapping to attention with a flawless salute. Zack stood up straighter too, and gave him a somber, respectful nod.

“As you were,” Sephiroth said wearily, and turned back to the giant window that looked out over the sleepy mountain town of Nibelheim.

Behind him, he heard the cadet’s footsteps fade away into the room behind him, but Zack came closer, to look out the window with him.

“What do you see?” Zack asked.

“There,” Sephiroth said, softly. “On the well in the center of the town.” In the dim afternoon light, it would take a SOLDIER’s enhanced vision to make out the single black feather perched atop the wooden structure.

“Genesis,” Zack whispered.

Sephiroth nodded. He’d been stunned at the first mission report Zack turned in detailing Genesis and Angeal’s wings—especially Genesis’s, which matched his own almost perfectly but for existing on the right hand side of Genesis’s body. But nothing about Genesis surprised him anymore, not his descent into madness, not his attempts to raise an army to oppose Shinra, not his constant absence.

“Are you going to be okay?” Zack asked warily. Sephiroth glanced at him, and he took a step back, raising his hands. “I’m just asking.”

Sephiroth kept his eyes on the feather, as the drifting wind tugged at it but failed to dislodge it from the wood. “Have I ever been anything less than perfectly fit for duty?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Zack said. “When Angeal…I was a fucking wreck, man. I still am, most of the time.”

“You loved Angeal. I did not love Genesis.” Sephiroth pressed his fingertips to the pane of glass. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

Zack hesitated, and Sephiroth thought he might say something, but then he just nodded and walked into the next room. Sephiroth could hear him joking around with the cadet, laughing together before the two of them finally fell asleep.

#

The reactor was uncomfortably warm, and Zack felt his skin prickle at the presence of great quantities of mako. Being SOLDIERs, he and Sephiroth were much more used to it than most, but that didn’t make it _pleasant_.

“Let’s get outta here quickly,” Zack said, glancing at his companion. Sephiroth had stopped short, his mouth slightly open, staring up at the sealed chamber at the far end of the room, a single word in great steel letters above it.

_JENOVA._

“Hey, that’s your mom’s name,” Zack said, because he had a tendency to blurt out the first thing that came to mind, but also because Sephiroth looked like he’d been paralyzed with shock. “Maybe she worked on this reactor,” he guessed.

Sephiroth didn’t even glance at him, but rather went to examine the machinery. He identified the broken part quickly enough, and Zack helped him get things working again.

Then, he peered into one of the metal pods filling the eastern half of the room. It was kind of a stupid thing to do. Shinra 101 was that you didn’t look too closely at how the sausage was made, even if you were one of the cogs grinding the meat. Usually, Zack was pretty good at keeping those sorts of things off his mind. But the things in these pods were most definitely monsters, and not the normal kind that you encountered in the wild. These were monsters that were created by humans and in a human image, but the end result was something bizarre and horrifying.

“Probably Hojo’s doing,” Sephiroth said. “He likes creating monsters.”

“He’s not the only one.” Genesis’s rich timbre came from somewhere in the shadows. When he stalked into the light, both Zack and Sephiroth drew in a short breath. He looked…faded, like all his usual vibrancy had been sucked out of him, leaving streaks of white and gray in his hair, his skin ashen and lacking all its usual luster, his eyes bright but colorless. Folded behind his back was a single dark, feathered wing as tall as he was.

“Genesis.” Zack moved to draw his sword and Genesis hit him with a blast of dark magic square in his chest. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be all that painful, but it knocked him to the floor and no matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t find the strength to get up. It felt more insulting than dangerous. Even more insulting was that neither Sephiroth nor Genesis spared him a second glance.

“I have orders to kill you on sight.” Sephiroth sounded cold all the way through, like the vicious killer everybody always said he was.

“How I miss your pillow talk,” Genesis said, his voice bright and mocking. “You may try if you like, my love.”

“Don’t.” The Masamune materialized in Sephiroth’s grip, glinting beneath the blue lights of the reactor. “Tell me you love me again. Lie to me again. I’ll cut your fucking tongue out.”

Still pinned to the floor, Zack’s stomach lurched. Sephiroth was scary when he was an emotionless robot. But Sephiroth when he was this deeply furious? Absolutely, bone-chillingly terrifying.

“What do you want?” Sephiroth asked.

“What I’ve always wanted,” Genesis said.

Sephiroth looked away disdainfully. “I’m not going to guess. You can tell me, or you can leave.”

“I want us to be equals,” Genesis spoke slowly, and Zack could tell it was hard for him to admit. He wasn’t surprised—Genesis had always been arrogant, and worst when it came to Sephiroth. “We were both created, but I was made imperfectly. My body is degrading, but if you come with me, if you speak to Hollander, we can—”

“No,” Sephiroth said. His voice was cold and clear as a blade cutting through the air. Even though Genesis had trapped him on the floor and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get free, Zack winced a little in sympathy. Now _that_ was a rejection.

“No?” Genesis said. “That’s it? After all this?”

Sephiroth’s eyes went wide, and his hair flared out as he spun on his heel and walked up to Genesis. He could have cut Genesis’s head off from across the reactor with the reach of the Masamune, but he stood less than an arm’s length away, holding the blade to Genesis’s throat. “That’s it,” he growled.

“That’s harsh,” Zack wheezed, but neither of them paid him any attention. He knew Sephiroth had taken it pretty hard when Genesis left, but still…

Genesis smiled, and it was equal parts fond and mocking. “Cut my throat and I’ll die with your name on my lips, my love.”

For a moment Zack thought Sephiroth might do it. The sword trembled in his grasp, but Genesis didn’t flinch.

Sephiroth slowly lowered the blade. “You’re not worth the trouble. I’m content to let you rot.”

Something flashed behind Genesis’s eyes, the spark that lights the firestorm. “Have you met your mother yet?” he asked, and his smile was cold and cruel as it spread across his face. “How about your brothers and sisters?” He spread his arm to gesture to all the pods in the reactor. “You are an experimental creature just as they are, built from the remains of those of us who came before.”

“No,” Sephiroth said, stumbling backwards. The Masamune fell to the floor, clanging against the metal panels, and Sephiroth clutched at his head, his hair flying as he shook it wildly. “No. You’re lying.”

 “Why would I lie, when the truth is so entertaining?” Genesis smirked, tossing an apple of all things, those dumbapples Angeal was always going on about, in his right hand. “Go on. You can get that door open. Go meet your mother.”

“Genesis,” Zack shouted, struggling, finally, to his feet. “What the hell are you doing?”

Genesis met Zack’s eyes, and for a moment he looked completely sane. “Burning it all down,” he said. “My legacy will be flames and ashes.”

And then, because he was a dramatic motherfucker _literally_ _all the time_ , he spread that black wing and flew up into the darkness. Sephiroth didn’t turn to watch him go, he was too busy kneeling by one of the pods with his hand pressed to his forehead.

“Well, he’s clearly insane,” Zack said, putting a hand on Sephiroth’s shoulder. “And really, Genesis is one to talk about being a monster. Just think about all the weird stuff he’s got going on. The duplicates, the—”

Sephiroth jerked away and got to his feet. “I need to do some research,” he said. “I need to think.”

“Or we could just forget the whole thing,” Zack added, hopefully. He had a feeling deep in the pit of his stomach that this was bad—this was really, really bad.


End file.
